In a world where there is no divine intervention, a place where Science, Magic and Technology developed side by side, a child of a few months old gazed into the foreign view from her side. She is near a glass window, so she could clearly see what is outside.
Buildings so high that reach the sky, vehicles that flew and raced without any smoke or burnable energy, Mana all around that is very mischievous and pure. Leila had a hard time digesting what is happening and what she is doing here.
After bleeding too much and expelling most of her powers, death should have been her only ending. But here she was in a body of a feeble young mortal. Everything is just so surreal and unbelievable.
She is currently in a crib which is floating in the air and in a little distance with the window. And she was alone with things she had never seen. She never saw a harmless-looking little bear nor did she see one that never moved from one position, inanimate as this. When she touched one of them, it was nice to touch, furthermore it didn't react to her.
She clenched over the bear using her left hand and looked around to check out the floating Mana surrounding her. They are very pure almost completely, if it weren't for the lightest shade in their light their elements are almost indistinguishable. Leila has never seen such a natural and uncontaminated blob since the start of the human's rise.
Almost as if these Mana were never tainted or forced into submission.
Back in her former world some humans were born with Mana which they cannot control. Mana in general is abundant everywhere, but these energies won't follow the instructions of the common people. Only the gods and some creatures with exceptional body constitution do they consider obeying.
Chances when a human gets to be born with Mana, they get weaker bodies due to the energy wreaking havoc inside of them. If they are born with bigger Mana pools they are prone to dying early. Mortal flesh is way too fragile to host such volatile energy inside. If not trained adequately, in one single moment they combust and perish.
So at an early age these people will start to tame these Mana. One to prolong their lives and the other to make themselves prominent people due to their rarity. A formidable living weapon, some degrenate rulers dub them.
Early training makes their bodies adaptable and more resilient to the energy inside them. In turn the Mana will become stable inside them. And at some point it will be steady and malleable that they can be formed into the shape its host wants, which the most chosen shape is weapons. Reilas was not the safest world to live in after all.
In the process the Mana will no longer be in their natural state and will become different as the wielder goes older. In the eyes of nature, this energy is foreign and is not well welcomed. But was tolerated as the mana is part of its inhabitants' body. After the human's death these mana will then be recognized as an abnormality, which even without any outside interference nature itself will try to erase or correct it. Thus, in the eyes of the immortal gods' eyes, these mana is called tainted due to its origin.
On the death of the wielder these Mana will be released to the world and roam around and follow through the motions of the laws of the world and its will. Usually they are to be rehabilitated by the natural order of things. But the process itself is snail pace, it will take decades to be fully purified on its own. A situation where highly tainted mana left unhindered and free, a tell tale sign of a disaster in making.
Due what the Tainted Mana had gone into as it was maturing, it is very unruly especially to those who wanted to borrow its strength. Mana is not benevolent and is very ferocious in its primal form, being tainted made them even so. If aggravated enough, it will instinctively try to remove everything that caused it to be so. And foolishly the people of some ancient civilization were an example of humanity's insanity.
If one will force the already Tainted Mana into what the seeker wanted it to be, a bodily explosion is the least of their concerns. Fueled with greed, those people sought to control what's beyond their capability. An endeavour that resulted in their entire country being lost in history. The aftermath had turned the land barren for centuries to come and will not allow anyone to be able to live near in the area for at least a hundred miles away from the edge of the explosion.
In her knowledge before she withdrew from the world, the humans were just starting to rehabilitate the place. A very long time considering time is very different to the goddess. The effects of the past foolishness and arrogance can be felt even how many eons it had once happened. Since then people of Reilas have learned to be careful about Mana. They cannot afford to lose their already highly sought lands than they already do.
The Tainted Mana that was left alone is also dangerous. As it was deliberately shaped into what its former owner had wanted it to be, with or without directions it will follow through the motion of what the human who used to wield them does. It's okay if the said human was good and his Mana was shaped to be helpful to the world, but if it's otherwise it will create various calamities that will reap many lives. Considering how they were formerly considered a part of its human extension, to some extent well intentioned mana is tolerated. But will still be purified at some point.
Seeing how devastating the effects of the Tainted Mana, the Divines of Reilas made it their duty to purify the harmful Mana to their most natural state.
Because of these tasks that the gods were worshiped by mortals, as mortals cannot purify Mana at all. If they insist on doing so, at most they will add more contamination and in the worst case scenarios they will agitate the mana and cause an explosion. A repeat of the tragedy of once upon a time if they force it.
Therefore seeing such soft and pure Mana fascinates Leila. With the purity of the surrounding mana, a long forgotten feeling comes to her. It made her fall into the state of indulgence similar to her first moments. Liberating and infinitely unexplored.
Since her left hand is occupied, she reached her right hand to touch the Mana. Like obedient children they behaved in her little palm, waiting to see what the child wanted to do.
Leila was delighted with Mana's reaction with her. She played with them by forming them into a ball and releasing them back into its initial formless state. The mana seems to enjoy it as well. A mass of them clustered in the vicinity of her floating crib. All too eager to play with her.
But these Mana suddenly scattered and seemingly hid as footsteps were heard nearing her location. The reaction of the Mana made Leila curious as to why they need to be far away if there are only people coming. But upon the sight of the people coming, Leila had some understanding why they ran away.
A man of early twenties with a towering height and a petite woman of similar was coming near her. They are surrounded with very concentrated colored Mana. The man was engulfed in red and the woman in green.
Developing mana don't like being near to mature mana if they can help it. Mana in nature is independent and prideful, so much that the young ones will try to distinguish itself from every other mana that is around them. And these mature Mana that the persons are carrying is a walking sign board of developing Mana to stay away.
Why so? It lays to the fact that every type of mana holds different attributes no matter how similar they are fundamentally. Clustering around developed mana makes these budding potentials fade away. If these attributes of theirs disappear, they are to be absorbed by the mature mana.
Therefore even if the developing Mana wants to stay, they will avoid the intruders instinctively. They don't want to be used as nourishment for others to be stronger.
The man had a mop of black unruly hair with a pair of beautiful silver grey eyes that reminded Leila of the god of sky's own pair. His eyes lit up when the eyes of the baby in the crib met his. Pinkish pink lips curved into an arc as he waved his hand, commanding the fiery red Mana around him to pull the crib towards him.
"Hello my little baby." The man said as he took her out of the crib. He then dropped a light kiss on the baby's forehead. "Did you get a good sleep?"
Leila just stared at him, not understanding why the man is very intimate with her. Not that she hated it, but ever since she had existed she never experienced such a thing. No one had ever kissed her even with her hand, none had ever dared. Her brethren also don't enjoy such intimacy much and rarely do anything remotely alike to what the man just did. Even if they did do such skin contact, it will be treated with sacredness and importance.
The man and the baby had an eye to eye contact, never breaking. The baby's eyes were unblinking as well as the man's eyes. The child's eyes showed incomprehension while the man held amusement.
The woman beside the man chuckled with the supposedly silent confrontation of the two. Upon her chuckles, the green Mana around her became brighter, as if responding to the woman's delight. Blue eyes sparkling with joy and contentment with life.
"Harold return my child to me. She doesn't understand much of what you are saying." The woman said as she snatched the baby from the man's hold. Her move was sudden that her silver hair was gently swaying with her movements.
"Deliah I still haven't given enough hugs and kisses to my daughter." The man complained, but did no actions to retrieve the child. He is afraid of doing sudden motions that may scare his child. But he reaches out to rain kisses to the silky face of the baby. Which the woman gave him a slap for.
Leila didn't react much to the actions of the two towards her young body. Her mind was stuck to the fact that the woman just called her "her child" and the man had called her "his daughter". The words are foreign, but she could understand it well enough that she's furthermore confused about her situation. Gods don't have parents, especially so with those like her who was the first in existence. Maybe the later generation of gods will have parents, but she has yet to see them.
For the past her the closest to such existence is the chaos that they all originated from. But chaos doesn't have form nor do they care much to the entities born from them.
Her brethren were left to fend for themselves moments after they were born. If she didn't care for them, the number of the primordial entities might be even less than their later counterparts. Her own early life was not really very pleasant if she thought about it, but it guaranteed her and her sisters to be stronger than the next generation of gods.
The words kept repeating in her brain, all were too strange to her. But if it was true, the intimacy can be explained. No matter how foreign it is to her, she had seen how humans cared for their young, even if some of them were too extreme in showing it.
Humans loved to show their affections and with her current state she concluded that she is indeed these people's child. No person will suddenly kiss and initiate skinship without some sort of relation, unless one has some problems in their brain and is in need of a beating. It feels weird, but Leila liked the feeling.
"The man and woman were husband and wife. And I am their daughter." Leila said to herself. "Now I have a family. People whose ties I cannot deny nor can I truly sever ties with."
The realization scared her more than it should be. She was used to being a lonely entity without anything to bind her down, not even her own death can make her scared.
Having people who will most likely be hurt for whatever bad things that will happen to her, made her feel like a coward. She doesn't want to inflict harm to others, especially those who truly cared. It was the reason why she limited her contact with her brethren when they started to grow stronger and independent. The reason why she lived in that lonely corner of the universe.
Leila could only stare at the pair. Studying and thinking that these two people don't deserve such despair. That their child is not as they hope her to be. All she knows is that she will bring heartache and distress if she continues the same mindset as before. A person's affections is a blessing, the former goddess knew better than letting those feelings down.
Therefore she resolute herself not to cause trouble for her newly acquired parents in the best way that she can. Even if it meant casting aside her pride as a proud goddess of her past. This is her life now. What good will it bring if she keeps on holding the past? She's dead and everyone is likely to forget her, like her followers once upon a time.
The couple were not aware of what their child is thinking of, they are fooling around like a pair of naughty children. Very unaware what kind of things their darling daughter will bring to their relatively simple and normal life.
Editing progress: 2/42 chapter
Edited: 12/30/20 18:31